Manchester
Shameless, Channel 4Wednesday, 29 May 2013
They say that the most important part of any drama is the journey that it takes its leading characters on. Whatever events have taken place - and after 139 episodes and nearly a decade, this show has had a lot of them - you can expect them to have... Read more... |
A Doll's House, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 08 May 2013
What price a woman’s liberation? And what price a man’s self-defined honour? By pitching one against the other and against the backdrop of wedlock (the emphasis being on the “lock”), Ibsen forges his classic love-hate drama which still grips as,... Read more... |
James, O2 Academy, BrixtonSaturday, 20 April 2013
If one thing unites James and last night's support act, Echo & the Bunnymen, it’s that they both tend to be underrated. James’s big college rock songs can overshadow the true splendour of their weird, poetic and off-kilter worldview. The... Read more... |
CD: Morris Cowan - Six DegreesMonday, 15 April 2013
Some 20 years ago, a series of albums called Artificial Intelligence on WARP Records aimed to promote techno as home-listening music. They made up a frequently sublime collection, but unfortunately the word “intelligence” in their title was picked... Read more... |
Scott & Bailey, Series 3, ITVThursday, 11 April 2013
I don't know how accurate Scott & Bailey is as a portrayal of the daily experiences of policewomen, but screenwriter Sally Wainwright is enjoying herself hugely with the chaotic private lives of her protagonists. Quite a bit of this echoes back... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Shuggie Otis, Peter King, Electronic, Billy MackenzieSunday, 07 April 2013
Shuggie Otis: Inspiration Information/Wings of LoveShuggie Otis's vanishing act after the release of his 1974 album Inspiration Information belatedly created one of pop’s great what-ifs. However, it only became so in the Nineties after the album was... Read more... |
Manchester International Festival 2013 PreviewFriday, 01 March 2013
Yesterday Kenneth Branagh was thanking Manchester – saying that he felt he had “come of age” the previous time he had performed Shakespeare in the city 25 years ago, the audience being so “generous, quick-witted and lively". He also thanked the city... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Factory Records, Dave Edmunds, Keith WhitleySunday, 24 February 2013
Crispy Ambulance: The Plateau Phase/The Durutti Column: LC/The Names: Swimming/The Wake: HarmonyPre-Madchester and before New Order’s breakout single “Blue Monday”, Manchester’s Factory Records was hard to penetrate. This quartet of reissues does a... Read more... |
Delphic, The Komedia, BrightonThursday, 21 February 2013
There’s currently a bemusing wave of bands that combine electronic dance with indie stylings. Acts such as Foals, Everything Everything and Delphic are increasingly successful but seem to my ears, at least on record, to be neither fish nor fowl.... Read more... |
Die Meistersinger Act Three, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterMonday, 11 February 2013
The “Mastersingers of Manchester”, about 350 of them, were gathered together by Sir Mark Elder to celebrate the Wagner bicentenary with this performance of Act Three of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in its entirety. He also pulled in about 200... Read more... |
Hardenberger, BBCPO, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSaturday, 02 February 2013
I’ve seen some double acts in my time, such as the Oistrakhs and the Torteliers, but none quite like that of Storgårds and Hardenberger. Best friends, they took it in turns to conduct the BBC Philharmonic and to take over the soloist's spot. First... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: 94 Baker Street Revisited, Buzzcocks, Tim Hardin, Julian CopeSunday, 27 January 2013
Various Artists: 94 Baker Street RevisitedAlthough the label is the only aspect of The Beatles’ Apple venture to endure, there was more to it than half-baked or ephemeral concerns like Apple Electronics, the Apple Boutique and the almost still-born... Read more... |
